Getting a Job

This is a discussion on Getting a Job within the General Discussions forums, part of the Community Boards category; Originally Posted by Fulwin
I'm tired of living at my parents' house.
Then do something about it!
I just believe ...

I just believe I made a big mistake going into computer science. It's not something you can take lightly.

Yeah. Like so many before you and after you that think computer programming is cool and game programming is hot. Not so great anymore ain't it?

With a degree in computer science that I have now, I hope that I can get a job now, without spending more time in school.

Then do something about it! x2
I'm all for Burger King too. That fits your profile just nicely. The army would have the likes of you for dinner and we don't want anything bad happening to you. Or you can do what everybody else seems to be doing. You chicken out the big companies and software development houses, lie on your resume, and hop the rest of your short career between small computer development jobs. Once you get fired because you slacked, you go and find another one. You can live of that, if you don't mind being a loser.

Or...

You can get your act together. Stop sucking your thumb, grow some cojones and be a man. Respect all the hard work your parents put into paying your tuition over these years (that you told'em you wanted!) and get out there just like everybody else trying do something for a living.

That pretty much says it all. I've been thru this, and it ended with the old man learning a quick lesson about the power of youth. Hasn't happened again

Anyway, if you don't like CS, drop it now. After I finished my BA (in English/Humanities, which I totally enjoyed and is still an area of interest for me), all I had left to do was a year of teacher's college and the world was mine: I could just pick a place, and go get a job in public education.

First, I decided to take some time off and work in unrelated fields for a bit. While that was happening, my friends were in teacher's college and hating it. I started to think about what it would be like in the real world, working in public school. All those jackass teachers I had no respect for would now be my peers. Now, some people will say it's worth it if you can make a difference in some student's life, etc. If I was honest with myself, however, I didn't believe in the public education system at all -- I felt the same way I always have: that it is mostly a waste of time, that it stunts human potential rather than fostering it, and that the whole system is fundamentally flawed. I am not going to be a fool about it -- I would be there for a paycheck. That's all I really wanted. I do not have to be a school teacher to be a positive influence on someone.

Ten years later I still do not regret my decision not to become a teacher even tho my degree is more or less useless for anything else, and even tho I would doubtless be living a more stable and comfortable life now. I would also have had to spend the last ten years in front of a class room, which IMO you might as well collect a check as a prison guard. Yuck.

You sound like the kind of person who is actually afraid of failure, which is why you finished a degree that didn't interest you -- because you didn't want to drop out, you don't want people like Mario F. to call you a loser. You need to get over that. Go do grunt work for a while. No doubt, the Army would be exciting, Burger King might be okay if not for the low low pay, altho I've worked doing fast food and in some high end resturants, as maitre'd and dishwasher. In the end I realized I'd rather wash the dishes because I don't like serving the public face to face, at all. So, I don't mind packing skids in a warehouse, but I go nuts as a cashier.

If you continue to let your parents and conventional conceptions of "success and failure" push you around, you will never be happy. Getting a good job at a big company in your "field" -- when you've already acknowledged you wished you weren't in it -- will only lead to resignation and disappointment with life down the road.

Any advice you get about this situation is going to be cliche because it is a cliche situation. Don't drag it out.